


Search and Rescue

by amairylle



Category: Guild Wars 2 (Video Game)
Genre: Broken Bones, FLUFF! IT'S FLUFF!, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Mild Blood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-09
Updated: 2019-01-09
Packaged: 2019-10-07 03:09:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17357807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amairylle/pseuds/amairylle
Summary: Amateur archeologist Okobii Fans's first real expedition is the best day she's ever had, until things go rapidly south. It looks like the best day of her life might also be the last day of her life, but out of sheer dumb luck she runs into a new friend, and a fresh start.





	Search and Rescue

**Author's Note:**

> Merry Wintersday to Squidh! You're a quality human and I'm glad to have met you!! Hope you had a great holiday!!
> 
> Written for my guild's secret ho-ho tron exchange. Okobii is Squidh's character and Arrandre is mine.

Today is officially the best day of Okobii’s life. Out on her own, in the open world, no one to bother her—just her and the forests to the north of Divinity’s Reach. She’d heard about some ruins to the far north, but she was hoping to find something a little closer to home. Perhaps even something that the Durmand Priory or the Black Lion Trading company would be interested enough to pay for. Selling artifacts wasn’t her first choice, but rent on her little place in Lion’s Arch was more expensive than she’d expected, and she was eating through her savings faster than she’d like. Beats being stuck in some damp bar wiping glasses all night.

She checks her map and compass and adjusts her path through the trees. Farther north, but a little more west, and there’s supposed to be the ruins of a small village. She’ll have to cross the river first. It’s a long walk, but it should only take her what, a day?

It doesn’t take her a day. She has to stop on the near side of the river and camp at sunset. She sets up her bedroll just above the waterline, and decides to see if she can catch a fish for dinner, to make her supplies last longer. She sets up her makeshift rod and drops it into a pool and waits. And waits.

“You know, I bet this would be a lot easier in daylight,” she murmurs to herself. “Or if I had real bait.” She pulls her line out of the water, and frowns at the soggy piece of bread on the end of the hook she’d made from one of her hairpins. “Better not waste anymore bread then.”

Her dinner is cold, and the night is colder, but there are so many stars out here in the middle of nowhere. It takes her at least an hour to take them all in, glittering above her like the fabric holding the mists together. It’s so beautiful she could cry.

Okobii wakes up freezing the next morning, but there’s crawdads in an eddy in the river, and she’s just fast enough to catch them without getting pinched. Much. She boils them in her little pot, because if they look like miniature lobster, then they’ll taste like miniature lobster too, right?

They do not, but a hot breakfast is welcome after the cold night. She’ll have to find something to break the wind tonight, which will be an interesting challenge.

Okobii walks downstream, admiring the autumn foliage while she waits for the delta to thin out enough to ford. There’s this tune stuck in her head, the bastard child of three pirate shanties at once, and the wind carries her whistling through the trees, up to the birds above her. The sky is blue, the sun is warm, and this is still the best day of her life. She finally crosses the river and doesn’t lose either of her boots in the mud, and practically skips up into the foothills. The little village should be around here somewhere, nestled between two of the hills before they grow into mountains. She climbs over and under rock, keeping an eye out for old foundations, broken bricks, and midden.

Halfway up the hills, the ground beneath her feet gives away, and she falls down into a dark hole with a shriek. Her hands scrabble at the smooth rock but do nothing to stop her fall, and when she lands, there’s an earsplitting crack from her leg and a dull thunk where her head meets stone.

When she wakes up next, in the hole, it’s pitch dark. She sits up slowly, her head and leg throbbing. “Okay,” she says. “Time to admit that this isn’t going as planned.” What little she can see of the cave spins, and when she touches the back of her head, there’s something sticky in her hair. She doesn’t dare examine her leg.

“Help,” Okobii rasps. She licks her dry lips and frowns. That won’t do. No one will hear her like that. She shifts her pack out from under her, whimpering every time she jostles her leg. Her main canteen cracked in the fall, but her backup is still full. She drinks a little, too aware that the water won’t last long enough. “Help!” she yells, and this time it echoes up the hole and into the night. “Help, please!” She shivers, and unrolls her blanket, careful not to let it bump her broken leg.

The stars change positions as she yells  herself hoarse. She can’t keep track of the time. She doesn’t really have friends in Lion’s Arch yet, and the few she does have knew she’d be gone for a while. At least a week. No one’s coming to look for her, and she’s already been in this hole too long. If someone doesn’t come soon she’ll—

“Not going to think about that,” she whispers. She tries one last time: “Help! I’m down here!” 

At the top of the hole, a small pointy shape blocks some of the stars. “Hello?” Okobii calls. The shape barks. Okobii could cry. “Hi there! Do you have a master?” She yells up at the dog. “Can you go get help?”

The dog barks again, and then the shape disappears and a howl pierces the night. Okobii instantly feels less dizzy, and the throbbing in her head recedes a hair. “A ranger’s pet,” she says. Perfect. “Please go get your master!”

The dog doesn’t move. It howls and howls no matter how much Okobii pleads for it to go and get help, she’s injured down here. But by the time a second shape pops its head into the opening in the cave, Okobii can see it clearly. It’s pinecone-shaped, and glows orange. “Hello!” the sylvari chirps. “Gotten yourself into a bit of trouble haven’t you?”

“I was actually having a wonderful time,” Okobii replies, “and then I fell.”

The sylvari laughs. “Gimme just a mo’ and Beech and I will have you out of there.” Their face disappears, but Okobii can still see Beech’s face hanging over the edge of the hole. She can just make out his lolling tongue.

It takes sylvari much longer than Okobii would like to come back. “Sorry for the wait,” they say. “I had to make sure my knots were solid. How much space is there around you? I don’t want to land on you.”

Okobii reaches out. “I’m right next to one wall,” she says, “but I can’t reach the other. Also, you are aware my leg is broken and I won’t be able to climb a rope, right?”

“‘Course it is,” the sylvari replies. “That’s a deep hole. But it should be ok. I’m plenty strong, and you can’t weigh more than a couple of grapes.”

Okobii flushes. “I’m not that tiny!” she shouts.

The sylvari just snickers, and a coil of rope lands on the bottom of the hole opposite Okobii, just missing her bad leg. The sylvari shimmies down it, landing lightly, taking great care not to step on Okobii. “I’m Arrandre,” they say, crouching down and peeling back Okobii’s blanket. They look like a pinecone with big, golden eyes. “And you’ve done a number on yourself, haven’t you? What’s your name?”

“It’s uh… Bee,” Okobii says.

Arrandre squints at her. “You sure? You look kind of familiar, Bee.”

Uh oh. “I don’t think we’ve ever met,” Okobii replies. Are her parents looking for her? Her parents had better not be looking for her.

Arrandre shrugs. “Guess not, then. What were you doing out here by yourself?”

Okobii grins. “There’s supposed to be a little settlement a bit further into this hills,” she says. “Abandoned, of course, but I was hoping that there would still be something of value intact. Family heirlooms, records, maybe a spirit or two?”

“Hobby archeologist, huh?” Arrandre runs their hands over Okobii’s leg, and Okobii gasps. “Keep talking. And what were you gonna do if you found something?”

“I was uh—” Okobii whimpers as Arrandre finds the break. “—I was going to see if the priory would pay for them. I—ow! I need to make my rent.”

Arrandre snorts. “Haven’t you tried bartending? That’s much easier money.” Okobii makes a face, and Arrandre throws back their head and laughs. “Not your thing, huh?”

“I don’t prefer it.”

“Well,” Arrandre says. “You’ll probably have to find some desk work until you heal.” They sit back on her heels and slide their pack off their back. “You’re very lucky. It’s only the one leg, and although you’ve got a nasty compound fracture in your tibia, you’ve only got a couple stress fractures in your femur.”

Okobii gives Arrandre a weak smile. “At least I’m lucky,” she says. She doesn’t really understand what Arrandre means by all that. “It could have been worse?”

“Oh, yeah, definitely.” Arrandre barks out a strained laugh. “If you’d broken your femur you would have bled to death inside your own leg before Beech found you.”

Okobii goes white. “Oh!” she squeaks. “Lucky. Yes.”

“It’s why you shouldn’t be out here alone,” Arrandre continues. They hand Okobii a small phial. “Here, Bee, drink this."

Okobii uncorks it and knocks it back. It tastes minty. “Aren’t you out here alone?” She asks.

“I’ve got a few other friends around the hills, who can get to me at a moment’s notice. We’re all also trained wilderness medics. You smell like you’ve never set foot out of Divinity’s Reach in your life.” Okobii wilts. It’s almost true. “Which reminds me,” Arrandre continues, “Beech! Flare!”

Beech barks, and disappears from the top of the hole. A few seconds later, there’s a bright orange light streaking up into the night, with a firework at the top. Beech comes back to the edge of the hole and barks again. “Good boy!” Arrandre says, then turns to Okobii. “My friends will be here in a minute to pull you up, so I’m going to try and splint your leg now. Is the painkiller kicking in?”

The absence of pain is much harder to notice, but if Okobii really pays attention she can finally feel enough of her leg to notice the wrongness of the break. She’s not sure it’s an improvement from the all-encompassing agony.. “I think so,” she says.

“Okay,” Arrandre replies. “I want you to take a deep breath.”

Okobii does. She still passes out when Arrandre re-aligns the bones.

* * *

Okobii wakes up on a boat, just after dawn. Her head and leg hurt all over again, but the clouds are beautiful, and she’s not going to die, so she really can’t complain. On the other side of the boat, there’s a small group of sylvari talking in hushed whispers. She only gets half the conversation.

“—think she’s living in Lion’s Arch, poor thing, if she’s having trouble paying rent—”

“—but doesn’t she look just like those—”

“—called herself Bee—”

“—but if she’s—”

“—probably only seventeen.”

She stirs, and the movement sends a twinge of pain up her leg, and she whimpers. Arrandre is at her side immediately. “Shhhh, Bee, it’s ok.” They give Okobii another vial, this one floral and cloyingly sweet. “Go back to sleep, you’re safe.”

* * *

The next time Okobii wakes, the ceiling above her is sunlight filtering through leaves, and she feels like she’s floating in a bubble and nothing is quite real. “Where?’ she asks, her voice raspy.

A cluster of branches with a friendly smile appears over her. “You’re in the Grove, dear.” He takes a cloth out of a bowl and uses it to drip cold water into Okobii’s mouth. “I’m Mender Calais. Your surgery is done and your leg is all put back together now, though you’d best stay off it for the time being. And your concussion should be okay within the week. Just rest.”

Okobii licks a few last drops of water off her lips. “Where’s ‘randre?” she asks.

Mender Calais puts the bowl down. “They said they had business in Divinity’s Reach, but they should be back shortly. I’ll let them know you’re awake once they do.”

“Mmm, thanks.”

Okobii swears she only closes her eyes for a moment, but when she opens them again, the sun is coming through the leaves from a different angle, and Arrandre is there, with Beech shoving his leafy nose into their hands. “Hey there!” They say, and Beech turns around and barks. “How are you feeling?”

“…better.” She feels a little more grounded, and although she’s sore all over, she can’t say that anything is particularly painful. “Thank you for saving me.”

Arrandre laughs. “I’m a wilderness rescuer. It’s my job.” They give Beech a last pat and he comes over and stuffs his nose under Okobii’s hand. It’s softer than she expected. “I’ve got a question for you though.”

“Mhm?” Okobii’s hand pauses between Beech’s ears.

“Bee, you’re not Okobii Fans, are you?”

Okobii squeaks and tenses so hard she can actually feel the pins in her leg shift. She squeaks again, this time out of pain.

“Hey, hey, no,” Arrandre says, hopping out of their seat and running soothing fingers through Okobii’s hair. “It’s ok. You look just like the bounty posters, but I’m not turning you in.”

“Did they really put up posters?” Okobii asks, trying to calm herself down.

“Oh, yeah,” Arrandre says. “It’s a sizable bounty. Could last you until you actually turn 18 and your parents can’t post bounties for you anymore.” They pause. “That is a human thing, right? You’re grown up at 18 and then no one can tell you what to do?”

“It is…” Okobii says, carefully. “But how would I get the bounty? They won’t give me money for turning myself in.”

“Nah,” Arrandre says. “But they gave me money for turning you in earlier this morning.”

“But I thought you said—” Okobii stutters. “But I’m still—” Arrandre plops a sizable bag of gold onto Okobii’s bedside table, and Okobii’s eyes bulge. She takes a couple deep breaths. “…how did you get that?” she whispers.

Beech wags his tail so hard it shakes Okobii’s bed. “I have a Mesmer friend,” Arrandre says, chuckling. “About your height, great at illusions, likes breaking into and out of places for fun. She thought impersonating you for a week or so sounded fun.”

“Oh my gods.” Okobii’s hands start to shake. “Oh my gods. You can’t just do something like that?”

“Already did it, sorry,” Arrandre says. “But to be honest, archeology doesn’t pay well, unless you’re doing it for some wealthy family.” They give Okobii a stern glare. “And I don’t want to see you hurt in the middle of nowhere again because you thought you could go out by yourself with barely any supplies.”

Okobii flushes. “Not my best moment.”

“Not really.” Arrandre gestures at Okobii’s leg. “And you can’t really walk right now, which is going to make working hard.”

Okobii turns even redder, and pulls her blanket up to hide under it. “I hadn’t thought of that yet.”

Arrandre shakes a hand in front of their face. “That’s what friends are for. I have a place in Willowalk, you can stay with me until you’re better.” Beech barks again. “Beech likes you, so you could stay until you turn 18 if you want. I could teach you a thing or two, and it’ll be cheaper than Lion’s Arch, and it doesn’t smell like fish or leak.” They give Okobii a wink.

Okobii’s eyes are saucers above her blanket. “Why are you doing this?”

Arrandre shrugs. “Someone apparently has to keep you alive. And like I said, Beech likes you, which means we’re friends now. What d’you say, Bee?”

Okobii slowly lowers the blanket from her face. “It’s a very kind offer, thank you,” she says. “You’re right, rent in Lion’s Arch is terrible, especially if you don’t want a place that smells like fish or leaks. And I’d be honored if you’d teach me some survival tips.”

Arrandre smiles. “You’ll have to get used to worse than a leaky roof if you want to spend time in the wilderness.”

Okobii wrinkles her nose. “That’s different. That’s camping.”

Arrandre throws back their head and laughs. “Fair enough,” they say. “You should rest now, Bee. You can tell me your landlord’s name and your address in the morning and I’ll go get your stuff, okay?”

“Yes please,” Okobii says. She’s going to need something to change into when she’s ready to leave. “Thank you.”

“No problem,” Arrandre says. “I’ll leave Beech with you, and he’ll come get me when you wake up. Beech, up!”

Beech hops gently onto Okobii’s bed and settles into the curve of her side, careful not to jostle her broken leg. He sets his muzzle on her shoulder and closes his eyes. Okobii copies him, her eyelids heavier than she’d expected. “Good night, Arrandre,” Okobii whispers.

“G’night, Bee.” Arrandre says, tucking a spare blanket around her and Beech.

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi to me on [Twitter,](https://twitter.com/amairylle) [Dreamwidth,](https://amairylle.dreamwidth.org/) or [Pillowfort!](https://www.pillowfort.io/Amairylle)


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